Labour Market Perspective

Traditionally, prospects for designers in the labour market have been closely linked to the overall economic situation. In times of a booming economy, jobs were offered to graduates even before they had completed the IDE programme. In a declining economy, it can take graduates one or two years to find a suitable job. However, the enormous potential of current new developments means that new industrial designers are likely to be in great demand. More and more governments and industry are convinced that innovation and smart design are set to play a very important role in future society. Also, the fact that the domain of Industrial Design is widening its scope (for example to services, product-service combinations, the design of environments, the management of product development, brand design), means that the domain could soon become less dependent on the state of the economic situation. So in the long run, the influence of design in society will increase, as will the demand for highly educated professionals in this field. IDE graduates are found in jobs such as industrial designer, product designer, product engineer, design engineer, design manager, product manager, interaction designer, researcher, usability consultant, design centered researcher, strategic designer, brand manager, New Product Development project leader, innovation consultant, design-brand consultant.